Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Being a Comparison of the Old and New Testament Myths and Miracles with those of the Heathen Nations of Antiquity Considering also their Origin and Meaning

Page: 121

This account of the darkness at the time of the death of Jesus of
Nazareth, is one of the prodigies related in the New Testament which no
Christian commentator has been able to make appear reasonable. The
favorite theory is that it was a natural eclipse of the sun, which
happened to take place at that particular time, but, if this was the
case, there was nothing supernatural in the event, and it had nothing
whatever to do with the death of Jesus. Again, it would be necessary to
prove from other sources that such an event happened at that time, but
this cannot be done. The argument from the duration of the
darkness—three hours—is also of great force against such an
occurrence having happened, for an eclipse seldom lasts in great
intensity more than six minutes.

Even if it could be proved that an eclipse really happened at the time
assigned for the crucifixion of Jesus, how about the earthquake, when
the rocks were rent and the graves opened? and how about the "saints
which slept" rising bodily and walking in the streets of the Holy City
and appearing to many? Surely, the faith that would remove
mountains,[209:8] is required here.

Shakespeare has embalmed some traditions of the kind exactly analogous
to the present case:

"In the most high and palmy state of Rome,A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted deadDid squeak and gibber in the Roman streets."[210:1]

Belief in the influence of the stars over life and death, and in
special portents at the death of great men, survived, indeed, to recent
times. Chaucer abounds in allusions to it, and still later Shakespeare
tells us:

"When beggars die there are no comets seen;The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

It would seem that this superstition survives even to the present day,
for it is well known that the dark and yellow atmosphere which settled
over so much of the country, on the day of the removal of President
Garfield from Washington to Long Branch, was sincerely held by hundreds
of persons to be a death-warning sent from heaven, and there were
numerous predictions that dissolution would take place before the train
arrived at its destination.

As Mr. Greg remarks, there can, we think, remain little doubt in
unprepossessed minds, that the whole legend in question was one of those
intended to magnify Christ Jesus, which were current in great numbers at
the time the Matthew narrator wrote, and which he, with the usual want
of discrimination and somewhat omnivorous tendency, which distinguished
him as a compiler, admitted into his Gospel.